Trial Balloon: Diocese of Freiburg allows Communion for Adulterers

The door to hell is now open!

A Wicked Trial Balloon: German Novus Ordo Archdiocese Opens Door to “Communion” for Public Adulterers

Archheretic Fr. Robert Zollitsch, current “Apostolic Administrator” of Archdiocese of Freiburg

UPDATE – OCT 11, 2013
A dispassionate analysis of the facts as related below would seem to indicate that the document instituting the “Freiburg Policy” is a trial balloon used by the German Modernists to “test the waters”, to see the reaction from their fellow-Novus Ordo countrymen as well as the reaction from the Vatican. The timing of the publication — during the Freiburg sede vacante period, as Zollitsch is no longer the official “Archbishop” but merely the “Apostolic Administrator” until a successor is named — is perfect. This way, the blame cannot entirely be laid on Zollitsch himself, who already claimed the paper was published without his prior knowledge, nor on any “Archbishop” of Freiburg, as there currently is none. A better time for releasing this document and waiting for reaction from various camps could not be imagined. 

Not only is the administration of the (putative) sacraments to those who are living in public adultery an unspeakable evil, a most grave sin against Almighty God; but it is also a slap in the face for all those good-willed Novus Ordos who, having been abandoned by their spouses, are refusing to enter into an adulterous union and instead are trying to live virtuous and holy lives in chastity and fidelity to their marriage vow, which they made “until death do us part.” In other words, all those married folks who, in obedience to Christ, have resisted the pressure and temptations of the world to “remarry” civilly are now being mocked by the Freiburg Policy that essentially says that adultery is no big deal and you can very much have a “second union” under certain circumstances (and, of course, we all know that “certain” circumstances always ultimately turn into “any” circumstances).

Oh, but didn’t Rome condemn the Freiburg Policy? No, not at all. The only thing the Vatican has done so far is have “Fr.” Federico Lombardi make some comments to the effect that nothing has changed, that the document “is not an official expression of the diocesan authority,” as though this technicality actually mattered, having been essentially endorsed after the fact by Archheretic Zollitsch, who called it a “good contribution” for debating the issue. Again, as mentioned above, it was precisely this loophole, due to the current sede vacante period in Freiburg, that would give the archdiocese the needed “plausible deniability” in case things should go wrong. And it looks like the Vatican is happily using this opportunity to downplay the seriousness of the facts.

There is absolutely no excuse for Rome not to unequivocally condemn the Freiburg Policy. There are no “nuances” to contend with here. The matter is very black-and-white. Yet, Lombardi merely stated that the how-to guide released on the diocesan web site “risks causing confusion” — not that it contradicts Divine Law, makes a mockery of the sacraments, endorses adultery, gravely offends God, or anything of the kind. The Vatican’s failure to condemn this document and order its immediate removal from the site and withdrawal from circulation — and instead referring the matter to a future synod (Oct. 2014) at which it will be “discussed” and perhaps “decided” — speaks volumes.

The blog post “Spitting on Christ’s Face” by non-sedevacantist Mundabor is an excellent commentary on the situation in Freiburg and the deafening silence from the Vatican, whose “Pope”, by the way, has called the mortal sin of fornication as “lacking the fullness, the greatness of marriage” (source).

UPDATE – OCT 10, 2013
On October 10, 2013, “Archbishop” Robert Zollitsch made a public statement regarding the document published on the Freiburg archdiocesan web site on permitting the “divorced-and-remarried” to receive the Novus Ordo sacraments. He asserted that the document had been released publicly without his knowledge, and that it was meant as a “contribution” for a discussion on this topic for the German Conference of Non-Catholic Bishops, of which he is the head. He called the document a “preliminary impetus” for discussion and had sent a copy of it to every member of the conference. Zollitsch did not distance himself from its clearly unacceptable contents; on the contrary, he stated in his letter to his fellow-bishops that he considered the document a “good contribution” to the unfinished process of “renewal” regarding this matter, adding that “Pope” Francis’ recent comments on this issue were to be seen as an inspiration to attempt taking “new steps” and develop new ideas.

As far as the status of the change in sacramental policy goes, the document describes itself as an aid to those who have the care of souls, the cura animarum (which, in the Novus Ordo Church in Germany, can include “priests” as well as laymen), in other words, “pastoral” workers; it is to be used by them as a directive on how to counsel and offer spiritual support to public adulterers who have a government-sanctioned “second marriage”.

This would seem to contradict Zollitsch’s assertion that the document was a mere “contribution” for a discussion among the nation’s Novus Ordo bishops. Besides, as can be seen by perusing the document itself (available as a PDF here), it is clearly not a draft or a mere article but designed as a pamphlet, a manual, for distribution. In fact, the official web site of the Archdiocese of Freiburg states that since the pamphlet is now publicly available, its sanctioned change in policy can be “tried out in practice” (!).

So, it is clear the paper was issued precisely as a how-to guide to making the admittance of public adulterers to the Novus Ordo sacraments a reality, now. And it was published by the very archdiocesan agency that deals with matters pertaining to the care of souls. While the document does not bear the signature of “Archbishop” Zollitsch — who is no longer the head of the archdiocese anyway, but now merely its “Apostolic Administrator” — it was signed by “Fr.” Andreas Mohrle and Michael Schweiger, two high-ranking officials in Freiburg. Mohrle is the cathedral dean and rector of the agency dealing with the care of souls, while Schweiger leads the agency’s department dedicated specifically to counseling adults. The document even includes suggestions for how a “liturgy” might look at which an adulterous union is celebrated and for which the perpetrators ask God’s blessing (!).

Vaticanist Giuseppe Nardi writes that it is hard to imagine that this perfidious document would have been posted and published without the prior knowledge of “Archbishop” Zollitsch. It is also curious, but not really surprising, that the document is still available to all for download (it has not been removed) at the official web site of the Archdiocese of Freiburg’s Pastoral Agency for Families.

Links to original sources (German):

• Freiburg Archdiocese
• Freiburg Archdiocesan Pastoral Agency for Families
• The Policy Document (PDF)
• Giuseppe Nardi on Zollitsch and the Policy Document (Oct. 8, 2013)
• News Story on Zollitsch Statement (Oct. 10, 2013)

Below, please find our original post to which the above texts are an update.

German Novus Ordo Archdiocese Opens Door to “Communion” for Public Adulterers

Freiburg, Germany (Oct. 7, 2013). The Novus Ordo Archdiocese of Freiburg has now officially given the green light to impenitent public adulterers in its territory to receive “Holy Communion” and other “sacraments” if they so desire, a move that violates even Modernist Novus Ordo law. The archdiocese is currently under the care of Fr. Robert Zollitsch, its just-retired former “Archbishop”, who now serves as its “Apostolic Administrator”, appointed to this post by “Pope” Francis. Zollitsch also happens to be the head of the German Conference of Non-Catholic Bishops, a function Francis has allowed him to retain until his term expires in March 2014. (This information is taken from the official web site of the Freiburg archdiocese.)

The leftist German news magazine Der Spiegel reports:

Apparently emboldened by the “new tone” of “Pope” Francis in the Vatican, who opposes “small-minded rules”, those “Catholic” public adulterers in Freiburg whose state of sin has been ratified by the civil government after invalidly declaring a true previously-contracted marriage to have “ended,” are now free to receive what they believe to be the sacraments of Baptism, Holy Communion, Penance (presumably adultery need not be confessed), “Anointing of the Sick,” and Confirmation, as they long as they have made this decision “responsibly” based on their — you guessed it — conscience.

Of course, the very idea of forming one’s conscience in opposition to the teaching of the Catholic Church is utterly absurd, as it is precisely this teaching which informs a right conscience. That is, all have a grave obligation to allow the Church to form their conscience. But the Novus Ordo Church is a sewer of Modernism, and Germany is an Über-Modernist stronghold in particular, so don’t expect Catholic teaching to matter squat to anyone in the Vatican II religion there.

“Archbishop” Zollitsch himself is a Modernist par excellence. You may recall that in 2009, he denied the dogma of the Atonement of Christ in an interview broadcast on television — on Holy Saturday, no less. He claimed that Christ died on the Cross not to offer atonement to God for the sins of the world and turn His wrath from us, but rather, in order to show that He has compassion on and identifies with human suffering and misery. Please see our post “Archbishop Zollitsch: Christ Did Not Die to Atone for Our Sins”, which includes a video clip.

The Vatican under Benedict XVI was entirely silent on Zollitsch’s bold-faced public heresy, and no one in Germany seemed so much to even notice that Zollitsch had pertinaciously spat upon a dogma of the Catholic Faith, right into the Face of the Crucified Christ. (Instead, the Vatican quickly condemned Bp. Richard Williamson the same year for holding a particular view regarding a matter of secular history.)

Speaking of Benedict XVI… In case you’re outraged by Freiburg permitting public sinners to receive the Novus Ordo “sacraments”, please be aware that on April 26, 2012, Benedict XVI himself administered “Holy Communion” to the publicly-adulterous Governor of Bavaria (the German state in which Benedict was born), Mr. Horst Seehofer, a man who claims to be a Roman Catholic yet obtained a civil divorce in 1982 and “married” another woman in 1985. To top things off, he fathered an illegitimate child with a third woman in 2006 (this is all public information).

Here is a photo of Benedict XVI giving “Communion” (it was possibly valid, actually) to this public sinner:

Mr. Horst Seehofer receiving “Communion” from Antipope Benedict XVI

The occasion for this sacrilegious act was Benedict’s 85th birthday. You can read the story covering it here. You may also wish to review our coverage of the incident in the Novus Ordo Watch News Archive of July 2012 here (scroll to very end of page).

But don’t think that Benedict XVI — Joseph Ratzinger — was acting in defiance of his own beliefs there necessarily. In 1972, it was this very same Joseph Ratzinger who made the pseudo-theological case for various scenarios under which the reception of the sacraments could be permitted for public adulterers. We will reveal and analyze the Ratzinger text in a future post here on the Novus Ordo Wire blog [UPDATE: This post is now available here].

Meanwhile, the Vatican under Francis has responded negatively to the Archdiocese of Freiburg’s new permission to allow the so-called “divorced-and-remarried” to receive Novus Ordo sacraments. The new policy “risks causing confusion”, an unnamed Vatican statement reportedly said, adding that the whole matter would be discussed — and presumably, also decided — at the Extraordinary Synod Francis just called for October 2014.

It remains to be seen how Archheretic Zollitsch will react to the Vatican’s reply. If he remains defiant, we anticipate he may soon have to explain why he won’t extend his new-found “pastoral solution” also to other public sinners (such as cohabitating unmarried couples — after all, isn’t fornication less evil than adultery?). Surely Zollitsch wouldn’t “discriminate” against some sinners but not others. Or would he?